Oakland returns badly needed jobs funds

ON THE EAST BAY

Published 4:15 pm, Thursday, February 14, 2013

Six years ago, then-Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums proposed the creation of a city-sponsored job-training program to hire ex-offenders for city jobs.

This week, city officials said $644,000, most of the money the federal government awarded them for that program, must be returned to the feds.

In a city that has had a high unemployment rate in recent years - 17.5 percent in 2010 and 12.9 percent now - Dellums' plan wasn't, and still isn't, a bad idea.

"We are always loath to send money back, but we can't break the law or violate the rules associated with the money," said Assistant City Administrator Fred Blackwell.

Which raises the question: How did the city qualify for the grant funds in the first place?

To understand that requires a stroll down memory lane.

As mayor, Dellums called for Oakland to apply for every federal and foundation grant available, and his office did exactly that, using the scattershot method.

One city official described it as the "spray and pray" approach.

A key component of that strategy was to snare job-training funds by creating a program to provide ex-offenders with job skills and reverse the course of a young person's life.

Dellums hired an executive director to run the program and placed him in the mayor's office to highlight its importance. And the mayor's office applied for federal funding, presumably to help pay for the city's ambitious program.

In 2010, Oakland won a federal stimulus grant of $745,000 from the Department of Labor to pay for the ex-offender plan.

Unfortunately, the plan never got off the drawing board. Oakland won the grant because the program was supposed to link job training to willing employers. But that never happened.

Thus the city's program existed in name only.

In October 2011, around the time city officials were contacted by state Employment Development Department officials who administered the funds, deadlines to spend the money had passed.

This isn't the first time Oakland has had problems with job-training funds.

In April 2010, the state Office of Inspector General issued findings from an audit report that showed that Oakland mismanaged job-training funds, spending them for trips to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and other outings instead of for helping unemployed people learn job skills.

Dellums brushed aside the audit as much ado about nothing - and then traveled to Sacramento and tried to quash it.

This time around, even though the city has returned the money, it doesn't mean it should abandon an idea that never received a fair shake. Oakland still needs such a program.

The feds got their refund, but Oakland's residents got nothing but a broken promise from their city leaders.

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